Record 44,210 child abuse cases in Japan in 2009

Japan's welfare ministry says the country's child welfare centers handled a record number of child abuse cases in fiscal 2009 ending in March.

The ministry says the number of incidents rose from a year earlier by about 1,500 to 44,210 cases. They included instances where children had to be taken into protective custody.

Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo reported 5,676 cases, followed by Osaka with 5,436, and Tokyo with 3,339.

Child abuse in Japan has steadily increased in the past decade, rising almost 150 percent since the child abuse prevention law came into force in 2000.

The welfare ministry says growing public awareness about child abuse is bringing to light cases that previously went unreported.